Chapter 35:
Without the rice, there was no hope.
And what if Kai was right and eating it did grant a human special powers? He couldn't let Kai have them. He was one of the least deserving. He threatened and bullied people as a normal human. Having spirit-like power would be even worse. What would he do to innocent people? How would he abuse this power once he got it?
"Why did you let him take it?" Boruto snapped at Sarada.
Taken aback by the sudden criticism, Sarada blinked. Then she returned his angry tone with her own choice words. "Me?! Why are you blaming me?"
"Why did you stop me?" Boruto was referring to her grabbing his hand when he reached for the kunai. "If I had thrown that kunai, I could have cut his hand and he would have dropped the pouch."
"The guard was pressing his staff into your stomach. You couldn't get free in time to grab it."
"But he only had you by the wrist. You could have gotten free a lot easier and caught the rice when it fell."
"What good would it have done us, Boruto?"
"We can't let Kai have it! You heard what the lizard said! No one else could eat it but the Sea King."
"Boruto, listen to me!" Sarada started to lower her voice now that she had issued the order. If she yelled the whole thing, he might have tuned her out and she needed him to hear her. "You're thinking of what had to be done in the moment and you need to think of the long-term. Think about what could happen after the action you take, and not the step immediately after."
"What do you mean?"
"If you had used the kunai to get the pouch from him, you would have been attacking the king's righthand man. There was a guard right there. You really think he would have allowed you to attack the king's pet? We would have been thrown in the dungeon and if that happened, we wouldn't be able to continue with the mission. We would have been stuck."
"But he took it from us!"
"But from the guard and servants' perspective, he only confiscated it. Not stolen. They could easily argue that we were carrying a dangerous weapon until they found out what it really was. They needed to investigate. And until they knew for sure, we haven't done anything wrong. If we had attacked Kai, we would have looked like assassins and had every right to attack us."
"But we can't let Kai have it!"
"I know, but attacking him with a weapon would have made us look like the bad guys. Think, Boruto. Cutting him would have made things worse. At least this way we have a chance. They have nothing bad against us. Kai's the one in the wrong and we have witnesses."
"But he still has the pouch! You heard him! He plans to eat it. The lizard said no one else could eat it but the Sea King."
"And we still don't know who or where he is."
Mitsuki pondered the title for a moment and commented, "Maybe Kai's the Sea King."
"There's no way anyone that horrible can be a spirit king!" Boruto snapped.
"Yes, but didn't Ryosuke mention that some spirits are cruel and sneaky? That was why good ones stayed to help defend against the bad ones." Mitsuki smiled. "It would also explain why he's so knowledgeable about spirit items."
It was an unnerving thought but Boruto refused to believe Kai was a spirit. It was impossible. If he had been, Ryosuke would have taken action. After all, the kitsune confessed that they didn't interfere unless a spirit was involved.
Boruto clenched his fists, grimacing more at the thought of what this meant for them than the pain of his nails digging into his palms.
"I know we haven't found the Sea King… But now what does it matter? Even if we do find him, we'll have nothing to give him. He won't help us without the rice and he's the only one who knows where my dad is. Without it, we're stuck. Without it, my old man…"
Boruto bit his lip and turned away.
He could beg and plead but there wasn't much he could do against a spirit, especially a king. He couldn't make the Sea King tell him where Naruto was or how to defeat the one who took him. It wasn't like the Sea King was obligated to help them in the first place. They needed that pouch of rice. It seemed silly, but Neji even said that spirit creatures were an odd sort. It made little sense to Boruto but they understood it. Certain human interactions were strange to them so Boruto didn't bother to try making sense of it anymore.
In his anger, he mentally blamed Sarada for their predicament. Not because she held him back but because she suggested they come here in the first place. He resented her for wanting to come here to look for an item that might not have even existed. It was her fault they were locked in this room.
If only they hadn't come here.
Boruto heard shifting and turned around. "What are you doing, Mitsuki?"
Mitsuki was hunched over a large chest and rummaging through it. "We did say we'd do a more thorough search. Why not now? Seems like as good a time as any."
Knowing Boruto needed a distraction, Sarada encouraged him to join in. Even if they didn't know what they were looking for, it was a good way to keep busy.
"We should be trying to get out of here so we can stop Kai from eating that rice," Boruto complained.
"That's a reinforced door," Sarada pointed out. "We're locked in. Face it, we're not getting out any time soon. Let's make the best of it and use our time wisely. Eventually someone will come let us out. That one servant said he'd be coming back here to tell us about the other items the king received."
"But Mitsuki took his key."
"I'm sure there are others."
Boruto sat on the floor, refusing to search the treasury. With no guarantee, it seemed like a waste of time. He doubted anything would be in here.
Under the dim humming light, Sarada and Mitsuki looked over every item in the room including the containers. Boxes, chests, glassware, bags, sacks, even pedestals. Sarada made sure to touch everything, remembering how Kai noticed that the pouch had a peculiar feel to it.
Mitsuki looked through books, their pages crisp and yellow. The binding cracked softly and pieces of dry paper and dust fluttered to the floor. The books held interesting information about history and inventions but nothing relating to their situation. A different book held plans for a canal and irrigation systems. Hand drawn sketches with notes were on almost every page.
A different book caught his eye and he flipped through the pages carefully. At first, it appeared to be a diary, but instead it was a collection of gifts the king received and gave over the years. The information dated back many years ago, allowing Mitsuki to discover that these exchanges took place during the era of past kings, perhaps the current one's father or grandfather.
The book wasn't an official information log which was why it wasn't in an archive. Just something the king jotted down during his travels home to pass the time and keep track of what was exchanged so that the kings could outdo each other as part of a silly competition.
Boruto tapped his foot on the ground impatiently.
Mitsuki looked up from his reading.
"Guys, we don't have time for this. We need to get out of here."
"What would you suggest?" Sarada asked, on her hands and knees while she looked under a table for items that may have fallen.
"Break the door down with your strength. I know you can do it."
"We're not allowed to use jutsu, remember? Even if we're alone. Not while this mission is going on."
"But you're not using jutsu, are you?"
Mitsuki looked at a table beside the bookcase and noticed objects hidden beneath a tarp and removed it. There he found a music box, clothing, a broken necklace chain and a stick.
A stick? That seemed out of place for a treasury. Mitsuki took a closer look. Grabbing the stick with one hand, he pulled it out from under the tarp he had folded over it in order to see the other items. It was quite larger than expected and that was when he realized it wasn't a stick but a cane.
He held the cane in both hands, looking it up and down. There were no jewels or diamonds, but it had a decorative top. The handle was smooth and fit comfortably in his hand. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the handle was actually a beak. The decorative top was a carving of a bird's head, the folded wings seemed to melt into the shaft of the cane.
He ran his hand from the bird's head, down the wings and all the way to the bottom of the smooth shaft. Actually, it wasn't all smooth. His fingers caressed something rough. He brought the cane closer to his face to investigate and found a small crack in the shaft of the cane.
The carved wood was beautiful but the unsightly crack made it unworthy of prominent display. It was a small crack, only the length of his pinky finger, but a blemish that required it to be hidden away. The king only displayed his finest treasures.
Even if the king deemed it unsightly for his palace, Mitsuki found it worthy of attention.
Behind him, Boruto and Sarada continued to argue.
"Stand back," Boruto told her. "I'm blasting this door down with my Rasengan."
"Boruto, we were told not to use jutsu!"
"On spirits, not doors."
"But-"
"Would you rather sit here and complain? I'm at least doing something useful."
Sarada's cheeks flashed pink with anger. "Useful?!" She stood up. "Then if I blast the door open with a punch, would that be useful?!"
"By all means!"
"Fine! And I'll be doing it without jutsu!" Sarada clenched her fist and got ready to punch the door down.
As she was about to step towards the door, it opened.
Both stopped and stared at the thin servant.
The thin man looked frightened. He looked at the two of them and in a trembling voice he said, "What was in that bag?"
"Huh?"
"The rice. Th- that bag of rice you gave to Kai."
"We didn't give him anything," said Boruto bitterly. "He took it from us."
"But what was in it?" the servant asked.
The Genin exchanged looks of worry.
The servant led them out of the treasury and down the hall, down some stairs and down another hall. As they drew closer, Boruto could hear a braying noise coming from behind closed doors. The servant went over to a pair of tall heavy doors and, after pausing to preparing himself, opened them.
A long table had been prepared for an elegant dining experience, but most of it lay overturned. The table cloth was wrinkled and pulled partway to the floor, the chopsticks were on the ground, a glass of water was rolling across the tabletop, candlesticks were on their side and an empty bowl rolled dizzily beside the empty cup.
While this was a scene in and of itself, the real spectacle was on the floor. Writhing and braying on the floor was a misshapen donkey in green robes embroidered with gold. It kept trying to stand up but couldn't keep its balance, falling and stumbling every time. It tried to steady itself on the table but slipped and fell. That was when Boruto noticed that the donkey had a hairy human hand.
"We cooked the rice just like he said," the servant said, eyes on the braying beast. "It cooked almost instantly. We were so surprised. We brought it to him like he told us and ate it with such energy, you'd think he had been starved. But then…"
"Haw! Hee-haw!" The donkey tried again to stand up but was tripping over its limbs and clothing. Then stumbled over the overturned chair.
"Is that…" Mitsuki observed, "… Kai?"
The donkey brayed again and fell to the ground with a clatter.
The servant was rendered speechless.
"He… He turned into a donkey?" Sarada was shocked. "Did you see him turn into a donkey?"
The servant was still beside himself. "I just… did as he asked. And… He…"
"What happened?" Sarada pressed.
"I- I don't know! He was eating the rice and then… I thought he was coughing. He called me over but I couldn't understand him. He had a frog in his throat but each time he coughed to get rid of it, his voice got more and more messed up. He couldn't speak a word. He just started… doing that."
"Hee-haw!"
"Then he just… He just… fell over and started to… And the ears and his body… I didn't know what to do. I just…"
Boruto stood over Kai's new form and couldn't help feeling pleased. As far as Boruto was concerned Kai got what he deserved.
However, his satisfaction of seeing Kai in this state was short-lived when he realized that this was the result of eating the rice.
"Is there any left?" Boruto whipped around with alarm. "Any rice? Is there any rice left at all? Even a gain?"
The servant handed him the empty pouch. "He ate everything. Believe me, if there were any left, I'd give it to you only to take it far away from here. I don't think I can eat rice again after seeing this."
Boruto's heart sank.
The rice for the Sea King. All of it was gone.
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